Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-02-03
A FEATaERED LINGUIsT.
A Pnrros That Talks El1ently IN
Fear Languages

A Parres That Talks Eluently In
Fear Languages
Next to the little silver-toag1ed can
ariss the gaudy -plumed parrot = most
populAr of the feathered pets An indi-
vidual dealer may perhaps sell nifty
canaries or moeking birds to one parrot
but the singers have delicate eonstitR-
tons and as q rrls do not live long
The bird fanciers know better than any
one else what trouble Purchases nave
With their pets. Il is . ecmnoa sxps
rience for purchasers to come oeek
three or four times . year Tor new eare,
The one bought last never seemed
bright" they say, and il died N less
thsn two months after bsing taken
home Occasionally parrot sess saeS
and dies, bat generally speaking pSr,Sa
lesh Is not heir to many Ills. and tIe
talksrs frequently live to venerable
age. says the savannah Nssrs-
Mr.. Jacob Gardiner said OF parrots
that the best takers came iron Africa
The grew African learns quickly, and Its
tone approaches nearer the human voice
than any other species Of the parrot
family. The grey African lives TO De
thirty and forty years old and Instances
are not rare Of their living more than
one hundred years. Very few OF these
birds are brought here. The Savannah
market is supplied by Northern dealers
and sailors from the West Iaases.
MEXICO and South American ports
Mexican and Cuban bxrds are often
brought here by sailors. and II tar
comes to the door and offers . palr OF
Venezuelan birds it Is tive to one that
they are Mexicans or Cubans- The
Venezaelsns talk as well 2s the Africans
and the;r plnmage il more brilliant
Birds from the brazilian forests are the
most Gorgeous plumagsd-
Married people who have no children
are yoad customers of bird faneiers. and
If they have only one bird they gener-
aliy take q parrot 0shsr birds may
sing Ike Calypso, bat they cannot talk
An Intelligent talker Is heally com
panion in many hozseholds. and nils the
place of prattling youngsters As the
parrot simply initiates sounds consider
able Practice Is necessary before Polly
can talk. The names which the bard
hears the oftenest are the ones which il
first learns. Six months ii least are re-
quired before parrot. unless II u
renarkably bright, acquires anything OF
q vocabulary. pretty Poll and Polly
wants . cracker are the last words
learned as a rule. Names CT members
of the family are soon learned
The intelligence OF some birds n WOE
derful A female In this city recently
had two Mexieans, an old one and
yoanr one. Both wocld watch every
opporsunity to get cut OF their cages
When the old one would escape, It
would quietly slip about the house sseal-
ing whatever it could find, hut always
trying to avoid being seen. In case the
young one happened to get out and the
old one could nos. the latter would
scream "Pollyis out, until some one
came Apparentty the old one took
mi.ehievoas delight in giving the young
one away.
Another family has \ bird which sings
ssPeek-a-B Boo to the amussnens ot
everyone who hears 1T Iaere n poPu-
larimpression that . parrot Will learn to
swear quicker than il will learn to use
words that are not profAns- A gentle
man OF this city who has at least thres
birds says that the impression il mo-
founded on fact. To satisfy himself he
tried % teach his birds fer ehoics
oaths. But after considerable troQbls
he gave il up IS = too difheals task
Whether the bird had conscientious
scruples to profanity ne would not say
bat they wocli not swear. A bird thai
q sailor has owned i not apt to be CON
scientious On the subject, but the swear
ing birds are not near 50 common as |
supposed.
Parrots often speak two languages. n
German and English. or French and
English Tae prices ran from 50 70 so
and even higher
Barraby Kudceis raven Scrip" anG
Poeis raven s-Neverlore mast yielS
the honors of talking to 4 parrot owned
BY United States Senator Leland STAN
ford of California He paid several mum
dred dollars for it, and Il il said to be 1
wonderfully educated bird II speak
four larguages-EnSlish, French. Ser
man ard Italian. The strange part of i
is that A. soon as he hears anyone speak
he knows In what language to aGdres
the stranger. For n long while no on
knew tha. the parrot spoke Italian. un
I'll one day an Italian artist came 10 In
hosse to do some work, and tke parrO
heard him talk. At once the bir'
started to jabber Italian. and had quit
= conversation with the man. Ii Al
ways talks German TO the German ssr
ranr, and French to the maid
The parrot, when anyone comes dow
m the morning. says. ''GOod morning.
hope you rested we'll He is very par
ticular. snd one day when strange
went up 60 him and said. pretty Polly
Polly want q erseSsT." he quite aston
ishsd the person by saying, .'Oh. stO
that foolishnes<. Can't yOu talk ssnsss
am tired Of that ros,7 The parrot h.
not learned TO say ''ehestnuts~ yet. bu
very often when asked II he wants
cracker says. That's old. give me som-